One of the most important players of the Babasiga Lions from Vanua Levu confirmed to Oceania Football Center he is staying in Labasa for the next season of football in Fiji: the 28-year-old Fijian international Christopher Wasasala is set to continue to be one of the key players for the Lions.
Christopher Wasasala – FIji FA Media
“I play for Labasa and I will continue playing for Labasa” said the striker that already scored 10 goals for his country. The striker that already won twice the Fijian Premier League has plenty of experience in the local football, also playing for Suva for a number of season.
Wasasala was a crucial striker for his team last season, where he played 15 games in the national league scoring a total of seven goals throught the season – including a hattrick against giants Ba.
The semifinals of the U-17 OFC Championship were played this Wednesday in Suva; the four teams expected to clinch a spot in the next U-17 FIFA World Cup to be played this year in Peru.
The first game of the day were between New Caledonia and Tahiti; two of the best teams in the tournament, the francophones should decide with of them would proceed for the final match and respectively book their flights to the next World Cup.
New Caledonia was the first to score; the talented Nolhann Alebate crossed the ball from a set piece and the central defender Gregory Diko tried to finished, Diko could not touch the ball but his attempt was enough to confuse Tahiti’s goalkeeper Argan Clodic-Boucher – the ball went in directly and the goal was awarded to Alebate.
New Caledonia continued to press up top, but a long pass from Tahitian skipper Hitimoana Teuira found Titouan Guillemant free – Wadria Hanye tried to clear the ball his header gifted the ball to the Tahitian striker. Guillemant made no mistake in front the goalkeeper and leveled the match.
The 1-1 draw was the final score in the first half; in the second part of the game the Tahitians started playing better, pressing New Caledonia’s defence. But it was Nolhann Alebate that once again shined – a fantastic solo effort play from the No. 10 assisted Jean-Yves Saïko in the box, the striker was fouled by Eden Cadosteau, awarding a penalty to the Cagous. This was the moment the French-based goalkeeper Argan Clodic-Boucher stepped up; the Joseph Hnaissilin’s penalty was defended by keeper – but the referee appointed the penalty needed to be retaken was Tahitian defence invaded the penalty box before the penalty was taken. This time Nolhann Alebate stepped up to take it, but once again Clodic-Boucher defended it and also saves the rebound shot by Jythrim Upa.
The winter was not decided within 90 minutes: the game went to the penalty shootout. It was the time for Claude Tiaouniane, New Caledonia’s goalkeeper to shine: he saved two penalties and counted on a miss from Hitimoana Teuira to win the shootout and qualify New Caledonia for their second-ever appearance at the U-17 FIFA World Cup.
New Caledonia celebrate – OFC Media
The second game had a clear favourite: New Zealand. The team coached by Martin Bullock was expected to control Fiji even playing in their home ground.
The English-based player Adam Watson scored the first for New Zealand still under the 10th minute mark – making it seem easy for the New Zealanders. But Fiji stepped up just after conceding; Rewa’s Delon Shankar set-piece play found Aron Naicker free in the right, his cross found Sailimone Ravonokula free in the box – his shot hit the crossbar and went it over the line to level the match.
New Zealand created some good opportunities still in the first half, but only in the final part of the game that New Zealand made the difference: it was again Adam Watson to score the second for his Tema, taking a rebound from Fiji’s keeper after a shot from Jackson Cole. New Zealand continued to press up top, but could only score another at the 72nd after a brilliant assist from Adam Watson to the top-scorer of the tournament Luke Supyk – he scored his sixth in the competition. Watson completed his hattrick eight minutes later after a brilliant solo effort giving no chance to Fijian defenders – giving final numbers to he match: New Zealand 4 – 1 Fiji.
New Zealand party after the match – OFC Media
New Zealand and New Caledonia will now on Saturday (28th Jan) the final match of the tournament to decide the champions of the U-17 OFC Championship. This will be the second match of both sides in the competition, as they played in the group stage with a narrow 3-2 win in favour of New Zealand.
Tahiti and Fiji also will have one more match in the tournament, as this year OFC decided to introduce a third-match playoff in the tournament. The match will also be played in Suva this Saturday.
With two defeats and one draw against Barcelona B, Auckland City FC had no luck playing the three warm-up games in Catalonia for Club World Cup. First friendly was a 1-0 loss to sixth-tier Spanish side Reus FC Reddis, the second 1-0 defeat was against Jeonbuk Motors, top-tier of South Korean football, and today facing the powerful Barcelona B of Rafa Marquez, City scored in the second half and equalised before the end of the game.
Now the Navy Blues is preparing for the big game next week for FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco. “I believe it was the best test for us before heading off to Morocco and the performance today was very positive.”, said head coach Albert Riera.
Media: Barcelona’s Twitter
150 games for De Vries
The friendly against Barcelona B was a special milestone for an important player in the squad: Ryan de Vries. He is now the sixth player with more games played for Auckland City FC – completing 150 games.
“We knew it was going to be tough, they’re a class outfit and they move the ball around very well and we had good patches and passed the ball well. This was our last game before the Club World Cup and a very good result for us.” said the forward.
Emiliano Tade scored for Navy Blues
Sergi Rosanas netted for Barça and the Argentinian Emiliano Tadefor Auckland City FC. The result was an encouraging for the Navy Blues coach Albert Riera and his team as they turn their focus towards the FIFA Club World Cup match with Al Ahly on February 1st 2023 in Tangiers, Morocco.
The release by Lae City FC will undoubtedly add mounting pressure on PNGFA and the NSL organisation, with General Secretary Pius Letenge, rumoured to have resigned.
This Tuesday (24th Jan) Velež Mostar played the Croatian side NK Neretvanac Opuzen, a team currently played the 3 NL – the fourth tier of football in Croatia. The Bosnian side did not have many problems to surpass their opponents in this friendly – Lea’i started as an option in the bench, but he was introduced by the coach Nedim Jusufbegović during the match and made certainly a huge impact.
Lea’i training in gym in Bosnia
“He scored a goal, had an assist for a penalty, hit the crossbar and another player then scored a goal; also one ball was saved by the goalkeeper and one ball was kicked out of the goal during international club friendly this morning against NK Neretvanac Opuzen” said Wakio Tareina’a, one of the responsible for arranging the trials for Raphael Lea’i. You can watch his highlights of the match here.
The local fans seemed impressed with Lea’i skills: “Raphael is awesome” said a fan in social media; “Raphael is a great player“, said another local fan in the same commentary section. Even an comparison was made due the similarity of players’ names: “Milan has Rafael Leão, we have Raphael Lea’i“, said another fan citing Portuguese star player Rafael Leão that is one of key player for his national team and Italian giants Milan.
Tareina’a, Henderson Eels’ chairman – club that Lea’i was playing back in Solomon Islands – also stated about the chances of Lea’i signing his first professional contract: “We change the plans to secure a contract; the chances of him in Turkey were low so we decided to focus in Velež Mostar. The goal is to make him the first Solomon Islands to play pro in Europe“, said the Eels’ boss, “Adnan [Dizdarević] told me about this idea and I accepted. I also had some assurance from him on securing a contract for him there“, added Tareina’a.
Oceania Football Center will continue following closely the development of Lea’i in his trials to provide updates in the following days.
New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and New Caledonia will play the semifinals of the U-17 OFC Championship on Wednesday – January 25th – in search of their dream of going to Peru to compete at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. New Zealand have played in the tournament numerous times before, New Caledonia will be looking to go for a second time while Tahiti and Fiji are aiming to play the tournament for the first time.
Dylan Hutia and Tiahiti Colombani of Tahiti – OFC Media
Tahiti and New Caledonia meet at 4pm local time: The Tama Ura and the Cagous are set to play a very interesting match. So far these are the two teams that have shown the most attractive football in the tournament. It will be interesting to see the duel of the two stars – Nolhann Alebate and Keanan Faure – who have been the key players for their teams in the championship. Titouan Guillemant and Jean-Yves Saiko could be two other names to keep an eye on. The duel on the bench will also be interesting, both Raiarii Golhen (Tahiti’s coach) and Leonardo Lopez (New Caledonia’s coach) like their teams to have the control of the possession in order to keep the opponents away from their goal.
Fiji and New Zealand face each other at 7pm local time; Fiji the host team will try to make history and impose on New Zealand its first elimination in OFC grassroots tournaments since Australia’s exit from Oceania Football Confederation – denying them a spot at the U-17 World Cup. The Baby Bula Boys rely on the local support to do so and they may need to impose a flawless physical and defensive game against the Kiwis. New Zealand, for their part, have not been playing convincing football in the tournament and struggled to beat New Caledonia and Vanuatu. They will have to be much more creative to break through the Fijian defense, they will need a bit more urgency in their game and to keep their back solid in order not to be exposed to the Fijian counterattacks.
The matches take place tomorrow – 25th Jan – at the ANZ Stadium in Suva, being live streamed by app Eleven Sports.
Vanuatu was knocked-out of the U-17 OFC Championship by New Zealand this Sunday (22th Jan) ended their dreams to take part in the U-17 World Cup to be held in Peru this year. This would be the second time Vanuatu would take part in a FIFA tournament, but they could fo through the strong New Zealand side in order to play a decisive semifinal match.
But the Ni-Vanuatu has more to celebrate rather to be sad: indeed, they lost, they are not progressing to the semifinals, but as said by head coach Emerson Alcântara after the match: “The most important is the development of the players to their senior team“, said the Brazilian coach.
Vanuatu team after 2-1 win over Cook Islands – OFC Media
Vanuatu must be proud of their young boys: they were able to hold New Zealand – counting on players based in European football and Australia – by 92 minutes. The U-17 side of New Zealand was only able to surpass Joseph Nakou after a penalty-kick.
It is important to mention that Augustine Chilia and Romain Luake had clear scoring chances there were wasted in the first half. Yan Chilia was childishly sent off at the starting minutes of the second half, forcing Vanuatu to completely abdicate to attack and only to focus in defense. It worked until the penalty, if it was not for it, the story of the game could end up differently.
Players such as Timothy Arukesa, Albert Timothy and Juniermo Loli were very solid in defense; while Augustine Chilia and especially Romain Luake sparked a lot of creativity upfront and confirmed their are raw diamonds to be cut for the future of Vanuatu football.
The starlet Raphael Lea’i is currently in Europe pursuing his dream to turn into a professional footballer – as reported by Oceania Football Center during the week. It was known the player was set to have a trial in Turkey, as mentioned in interview to Henderson Eels’ chairman, but it was revelead by FK Velež Mostar staff member Adnan Dizdarević that the player is not anymore travelling to Turkey as mentioned before, but indeed the trial is already taking place in the club: “He will not go to Turkey, he came here to agree on a contract and to play. He went to Turkey last summer, but he had problems with his visa” said Dizdarević to Oceania Football Center.
It was reported the player was in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s top-tier side in order to prepare for the trial period in Analyaspor, Turkey, but the info was denied by Dizdarević that confirmed indeed the trial was set out to FK Velež Mostar.
Raphael Lea’i in Bosnia and Herzegovina
“He will go to Turkey with the club (FK VELEŽ MOSTAR) for preparations“, said the staff member, mentioned what possibly caused the misunderstanding. “Raphael is adapting to the time zone, the climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the new way of training. I believe that he will manage to sign the contract“, said Dizdarević that was one of the responsibles to arrange the trials for Lea’i in his club. The words coming from the staff member of Velež Mostar are delighting and prove Lea’i is definitely close to sign his first pro-contract and already in the European continent.
Velež Mostar is one of the most important clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a very traditional team with passionated fans. The club recently celebrated its 100th birthday and its currently ranked 6th in the top-tier league of the country.
This Saturday (21th Jan) saw terrible moments in the field of play in PNG Football Stadium in Port Moresby; not a bad football game, but much worse: hooliganism attacks between two factions of supporters enter into fight having the pitch as an wrestle arena. You can see more about by clicking here.
After the decisive matches of this weekend for the National Soccer League, it is confirmed the national forces Hekari United and Lae City will face each other again in the league final. The match is set to be played in the venue the violence actions happened, as it was confirmed by PNGFA in a public statement in their social media account.
Lae City FC line up this Saturday
The situation made Lae City FC issue a public note concern: “The NSL grand final will be played in Port Moresby. After reports and videos about the supporters invading the field and punching each other with no security or police presence, what is the guarantee for a safe grand final? PNGFA should bring the match to Lae where security will not be an issue” stated the club in social media.
It is known there was a real problem in security – the hooligans started to gather in the stands and rapidly entered the field of play with no resistance. It is also reported the violence took over around several minutes to be controlled by police officers.
The Papua New Guinea FA did not issue any public statement on the happenings and just confirmed the final match to be played in the same venue of the hooligans’ attack.
Last January 11th we learned that the Argentine Rodolfo Zapata will be the head coach of the Fijian national team in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, a normal news until then if the position had not already been held by Ronil Lal, who was the man who led Fiji to secure a spot for the second time in a FIFA tournament – Lal was the head coach in Tahiti for the Junior Bula Boys, where he guided the team to the final match, confirming a spot in the U-20 FIFA World Cup.
Ronil Lal – Fiji FA Media
Ronil Lal is a very well known coach in Fiji; he is a multi-champion with Labasa, in 2019 he achieved the incredible feat of winning three tournaments in the same year winning the Battle of Giants, the Interdistrict Championship and the Champions vs Champions Series. Lal, an OFC Senior B Licence holder, stepped down from Labasa coaching-role in 2021 citing personal problems as he and his family were hit by Tropical Cyclone Ana – “I need to value my family and give them the time plus let’s see how long it takes but I’ll be back“, said Lal to a local newspaper. He definitely he got back with a massive feat qualifying Fiji for a major international tournament.
In 2014, the first time Fiji qualified for the tournament, the same happened: Ravinesh Kumar led the team to win the OFC U-19 Tournament held in Suva and later Australian football legend Frank Farina was appointed as the head coach for the U-20 World Cup played in New Zealand. But, at that moment, Farina was already in a role in Fiji FA – as technical advisor -, different from what happened this time. Farina was the head coach of Australia national team for seven years, winning a number of OFC Nations Cup editions and also coaching the team at FIFA Confederations Cup.
Zapata, the new head coach for Fiji U-20 side, is also an experienced coach – but certainly is still to get to know the reality of football in Oceania – and he will not have so much time to do so as the FIFA U-20 World Cup held in Indonesia already starts in May. His most important achievement was guiding Township Rollers from Botswana, Africa, to a national title. He also coached in Kenya, South Africa and United States.
The reaction on Zapata’s appoitment was a ‘mix of emotions’ in the passionated football community in Fiji. Some fans got excited to see an Argentinian to coach Fiji in the next U-20 World Cup, but the majority of the fans seemed a bit dissapointed with the departure of Lal from the head coach position after his succesful stint last year.
It is still unknown wheter Lal will be part of the staff of Zapata in next months heading for the FIFA tournament, but it can be already confirmed that he is not going to be the guidor of this young team at their peak.
Oceania Football Center 